Project manager Tony Keen said the mine has been "deferred" from the plan -- along with a supporting road and barge service -- by necessity due to sagging world metal prices.

Keen said the port and road joint venture will move forward with the project regardless.

"The mine section of the project has been deferred because of depressed metal prices. But at some point that section of the road (to Izok) would still be built and the mine would still be served by the project."

That doesn't sit well with the project's critics. The Canadian Arctic Resources Committee (CARC) has opposed the project on both economic and environmental grounds and likes it even less now.

Without the Izok mine as the project "centrepiece," an environmental review of the port and road should be postponed "until the project is clarified and its viability is proven," said CARC.

The Bathurst port and road project is a 50-50 joint venture between the Kitikmeot Corporation and Nuna Logistics.

The joint venture is now "waiting for a decision by DIAND on what environmental process we will have to go through" with the revised proposal, Keen said.

Under the Nunavut land claims agreement, the project is subject to an environmental assessment either by the Nunavut Impact Review Board (Part 5 under the agreement) or a broader federal assessment (Part 6).

Keen said the joint venture is hoping for a Part 5 review. The NIRB was leaning toward that option last year in order to better include local concerns.

"Once we hear from DIAND, assuming that they tell NIRB that we have a Part 5 review, our next step will be to prepare an environmental impact statement and then proceed into the environmental assessment process," said Keen.

The joint venture is hoping to complete the permitting process by June, 2004.

"At that point we would bring in materials by barge and start construction of the port site," he said.

Construction of the road would start over the winter of 2004/2005.

On that schedule, construction of the port and a 211-kilometre all-weather road south to Contwoyto Lake would be completed by 2006, he said.

A winter road would be built from a 20-person maintenance camp at Contwoyto Lake to Lupin, already serviced by a winter road from Yellowknife.

A barge service between Lupin and Contwoyto Lake and a 79-kilometre all-weather road from Lupin to Izok have now been deferred.

The Bathurst Inlet port would be capable of serving 50,000-tonne ice class vessels. Major components in the revised plan include:

-A dock to handle barges serving Kitikmeot communities.

-A 180 million-litre fuel oil tank farm.

- A 1,200-metre airstrip.

-A 150-person camp.

-A truck and trailer maintenance shop.

The scaled down project will cost an estimated $165 million.